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 A LITTLE ONE SHALL BECOME A THOUSAND." 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PRBACHED AT 
 
 THE OPENING OF THE 
 
 CUDDESDON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION, 
 
 ON THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 1854, 
 
 BY THK 
 
 RIGHT REV. G. A. SELWYN, D.D.. 
 
 BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDEO, 
 
 AN APPENDIX, 
 
 CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS, AND THE 
 SPEECHES DELIVERED BY TFIE BISHOPS PRESENT. 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. VINCENT. 
 
 AND F. AND C, RIVINGTONS, LONDON. 
 
 1854. 
 
 /
 
 A SERMON. 
 
 Isaiah Ix., 22. 
 
 " A little one shall become a thousand.'' 
 
 In everything relating to our spiritual life, it is not easy to 
 determine whether we are more influenced hy the certainty 
 of the past, or by the promise of the future. Our Faith at 
 one time looks back to the Sufferings, and Death, and Re- 
 surrection of our Blessed Redeemer, and at another time 
 looks forward to His second coming, and to the revelation 
 of His heavenly glory. In like manner all the greatest joys 
 of life are made up either of memory or of hope: and the 
 present sinks into insignificance by the side of the accumu- 
 lated and unbounded treasures of the past and of the future. 
 In the highest subjects of spiritual thought, such as the 
 facts of the Death and Resurrection of our Lord, and the 
 hope of His second coming, it is impossible to say which of 
 the two kinds of Faith ought to move us most. Rather 
 let us consider, that both united make up that one perfect 
 motive which ought to influence every thought, and word.
 
 and action of our lives. Tlie groundwork of all Christian 
 practice rests upon the one Lord, which was, and is, and is 
 to come. 
 
 But in the lower branches of religious duty, relating 
 rather to the system, than to the doctrines of the Church, 
 we may see with what a beautiful variety the minds of men 
 are constituted : so that every part of the work of Christ 
 may be allotted to a mind especially fitted for it. The ser- 
 vants of God may be divided into the two general classes 
 of the men of memory and the men of hope : the one pre- 
 serving and cherishing every holy usage and every time- 
 honoured institution ; the other, bent upon advancing the 
 standard of the cross, and bringing new countries and new 
 nations within the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Between 
 these two classes of men, both so necessary to the full work 
 of the Church, there is no other ground of preference than 
 a simple priority of operation. There must be men of hope 
 before there can be men of memory : those who planted the 
 acorn must have preceded those who sit under the shade of 
 the oak. 
 
 They were men of hope, who first looked upon the fair 
 vale of the Isis, or the sedgy plain of the Cam, and marked 
 out the site of the single College, which, in the course of 
 centuries, was to grow into a great and flourishing Univer- 
 sity. There could have been but little at first to encourage 
 them in their work : the first founders must have died 
 without seeing much, if any, fruit of their labours : every 
 material and every moral difficulty must have stood in the 
 way : there was no reverence of the place, no tone among 
 the Students: no estabUshed system of instruction : no tried 
 rule of discipline : the transport of every stone and of every 
 beam must have cost far more labour than at present. If 
 the stones and the beams of our oldest Colleges could cry 
 out of the walls, they would tell of reverend and even royal 
 hands that helped to raise them to their place, in an age 
 when industry was the birthright of all, and neither wealth 
 nor station had aa yet excommunicated any one from that 
 
 uiuc ,
 
 general privilege of all mankind. It was a slow work, in 
 the course of which many generations died in succession : 
 but all were animated by the same one thought. They 
 were all men of hope : and they hoped that the day would 
 come, though they might not live to see it, when the tree 
 which they had planted would bear its fruit. And so it 
 did : for the blessing of God was upon their work. The 
 little one became a thousand. The single College grew 
 into the University. The small band of Students grew into 
 a multitude. 
 
 The men of hope were succeeded by the men of memory : 
 pious, thoughtful, meditative men, who treasured up in their 
 cloistered cells every record and precedent of the past : men 
 who thought less of pressing forward to new lives of active 
 duty, than of living up to the ancient standard and verifying 
 in their own persons the traditions of bygone days. In their 
 hands discipline became a code and education a system : 
 their mellow wisdom gave a tone to the manners of the 
 times, and threw a prescriptive reverence over every solemn 
 ordinance and every holy place. It was not their principle 
 to exclude all innovation, any more than to repel strangers, 
 but they scrutinized every visitor closely at the wicket 
 before they opened the gate. The corporate mind was not 
 yet so much desirous of progress as of preserving unimpaired 
 the deposit handed down to them by preceding generations. 
 
 Each of these two classes of men had its own distinct 
 and holy vocation : the one to plant, the other to preserve ; 
 and we can no more deny the usefulness of either than we 
 can draw distinctions between the soldiers that guard the 
 camp, and those that go forth to meet the enemy in the 
 field. In this we recognize the wisdom of Him who is both 
 our creator and our preserver : that He gives to each one of 
 His servants that measure of His own power and grace 
 which may enable him to fill up his own part in the one 
 great work ; " that all may grow up into Him, in all things 
 " which is the Head, even Christ: from whom the whole body 
 *' fitly framed together, and compacted by that which every
 
 "joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the 
 " measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto 
 " the edifying of itself in love." 
 
 There are some here present who have tasted of the plea- 
 sures of hope, which a new country, recently colonized, so 
 abundantly supplies. We have no institutions which will 
 bear comparison with those of the mother country : but our 
 wooden walls and reeded roofs are endeared to us by all 
 the varied pleasures of hope. We can stand upon a hill 
 top, and look upon a spacious plain without inhabitants, 
 and picture to ourselves the village churches that will soon 
 arise ; the fields of waving corn ripening around the dwel- 
 lings of the colonists. We come back again to the same 
 spot, and the vision is fulfilled. The wilderness has become 
 a fruitful field. The little one has become a thousand. 
 
 Or we can sail to island after island in almost endless 
 succession, without finding anywhere a single trace of the 
 Gospel. All is dark : but a bright ray of light soon pierces 
 the darkness : a little child of heathen parents is committed 
 to our charge. He is taught ; he is baptized. He returns 
 as the evangelist of his own people. They listen to his 
 words : and soon the whole face of that moral wilderness is 
 changed. The little one has become a thousand. The hope 
 is justified and the prayer is answered : that the Lord would 
 hasten it in His time. 
 
 Joys such as these, first of pure hope and then of its 
 partial fulfilment, recompense the missionary and the 
 colonist for the worst part of his lot, the separation from 
 every thing old, and the privation of so many of the joys of 
 memory. And it is wisely ordered that there are some 
 minds so constituted as to find in the prospect of the future 
 a full satisfaction for the shutting out of all the traditions 
 of the past. Some minds there are, who, in the spirit of 
 St. PauFs words, "forgetting those things which are behind, 
 " and reaching forth to those things which are before, can 
 " press towards the mark for the prize of our high calling in 
 " Christ Jesus."
 
 But the strangest sight of all, and one well worthy of 
 investigation, is when we see the same works and plans 
 which seem to belong to a new country and an infant 
 Church, inaugurated with bright hopes and fervent prayers, 
 almost in sight of ancient Colleges which rear their hoary 
 heads in perpetual memory of the zeal and piety of our 
 forefathers. Was the plan of the ancient builders incom- 
 plete : or their means insufficient : that they have left this 
 necessary portion of the work of the Church to be com- 
 pleted in our day ? How can we account for the fact 
 that the very same work which is the first step in our 
 Colonial Dioceses, seems to have been reserved for the ripe 
 age and mature experience of the Diocese of Oxford ? 
 
 The answer, at least in its main feature, is I think, plain 
 and simple. There is a tendency in all organized communi- 
 ties, analagous to those cycles of disturbing forces, which in 
 the system of nature compensate one another in long periods 
 of time. The first process of improvement often developes 
 causes which hinder its future progress. This seems to be a 
 wise appointment of the Creator, that His work should be 
 really imperishable, and yet not so faultless or unerring in 
 any of its parts, or at any one time, that men should repose 
 their dead weight upon the moving power of the vast 
 machine by which they are borne irresistibly along : rather 
 than give their own earnest efibrts, and vivid impulses, each 
 according toiiis own measure of grace and strength, to that 
 part which seems to be wanting either in power or in 
 speed. Every dead period in the Church, every decay of 
 its spiritual life, is not so much a proof that God's Holy 
 Spirit is withdrawn, as a means ordained by God for calling 
 forth the living energies of His chosen servants, and for 
 promoting His own glory by the success of their minis- 
 trations. 
 
 There is no doubt that every Cathedral, and even every 
 College, was intended to have within itself, and actually had, 
 the germ of everything needful for the supply of the various 
 ministeries of the Church. The Culhams and the Cuddes-
 
 8 
 
 dons which the piety of the present generation have raised in 
 new places and with new funds, were all enwrapped in the 
 little acorn of comprehensive hope, which some reverend 
 Bishop or some holy King dibbled into the field, which he 
 cleared out of the surrounding forest or reclaimed from the 
 midst of the swamp. Within that hallowed precinct every 
 one was free to enter who could bring with him the two cre- 
 dentials of poverty and piety. There he could obtain without 
 money and without price the third qualification necessary for 
 future advancement, namely, sound learning and religious 
 knowledge. This was the beginning, the wise and good 
 beginning, which in the course of man''s moral nature, while 
 it brought forth fruits for which we must be ever thankful, 
 generated also hindrances to its own progress. 
 
 The first step in the improvement of mankind, has been 
 to bring him out of that state, described by the poet, 
 
 " When wild in woods the noble savage ran." 
 It was to combine the separate atoms of mankind into one 
 system ; for religion, to unite them in a Church ; for govern- 
 ment, to combine them into a state. But every advance of 
 knowledge or of feeling tends to draw men back again to the 
 state of independent egotism from which they were rescued. 
 What is called in art the division of labour, distributes to 
 each workman his own small part and wheel of the great 
 machine, and by constant practice each becomes perfect in 
 his own branch of the work; but this alone does not give the 
 absolute perfection to the engine. There must be a presiding 
 power to demand from every workman his finished piece, and 
 to unite them all in one body, " compacted with that which 
 every joint supplieth."" That power is found least where it is 
 wanted most, in the Church of Christ. It is found working 
 in government, in law, in science, in medicine, in trade ; but 
 it is not found in religion : there the atomic heresy still 
 prevails ; and the result so far as it is not overruled by Divine 
 Providence is a tendency to return to chaos. 
 
 This retrograde tendency is the more dangerous, because 
 it is often the direct result of high principle and great earnest-
 
 9 
 
 ne88 in work, and real advancement in knowledge. What 
 for instance is more natural than that in a place where learn- 
 ing is cultivated, the highest excellence in learning should 
 be the object aimed at 1 or if mathematical science be the 
 chief study of the place, what is more natural than that every 
 student's heart should strain that point, at which alone all 
 academical distinctions can be obtained ? The division of 
 intellectual as of mechanical labour makes each man perfect 
 in his own department, by shutting out in a great measure 
 every other thought and action from his mind. It is no wilful 
 sin then in Universities that they have not fulfilled in all 
 respects the purposes of their founders. It was the inevitable 
 tendency of their Avork, severed, as it pleased God to allow it 
 to be severed, from the great presiding authority of the 
 Church, which would have gathered together all their sepa- 
 rate works in one great thank-offering to Christ, and built in 
 even their intellectual honours as the polished corners of His 
 temple. 
 
 The same may be said of Cathedrals. They first founded 
 Parish Churches : and now the Parish Churches, like the 
 suckers of an old tree, are draining the juices of the parent 
 stock. This also is an evil springing out of the very suc- 
 cess of the early work. What can be closer or more holy 
 than the daily communing of the parochial clergyman with 
 his flock ? What work can have a greater promise of bles- 
 sing, or a more abundant unction of the Spirit ? And 
 therefore the more men learned to value the parochial 
 ministry, the more they needed it : and first the Canon left 
 his cloister and settled in the Parsonage, carrying with him 
 his prebendal income, to restore the parish Church, or to 
 relieve the village poor ; and then came a law to take 
 away the canonries themselves ; and to pronounce them 
 useless because they were not used ; and to scatter their 
 resources far and wide over the length and breadth of the 
 parochial system. One step more brings the subject home 
 to our own doors : we walk through the moss grown clois- 
 ters, and by the doors of empty houses, and the abode of
 
 10 
 
 holy men now gone to their rest, and we come out into the 
 open country, where upon some hill-top or highway side, 
 the zeal and piety of a Bishop and his Clergy have reared 
 their Cuddesdon or their Culham, to do for the Parochial 
 Clergy the same cardinal and central works, which the 
 Cathedral Clergy might have done, but for their deeper 
 sympathy and more earnest zeal for the parochial ministry. 
 It seems to a stranger a roundabout process, and a loss of 
 power : but straight or circuitous, God bless the Work. 
 
 But there was a higher danger still, and I hope to be for- 
 given for mentioning it in this reverend presence. When Ca- 
 thedrals ceased to be the central organs of diffusion of good, 
 they ceased to be the true and real sees of the Bishop. He 
 had no interest in the mere administration of funds of 
 which he was not the responsible trustee. He was not 
 needed to control the small residentiary body of Canons or 
 of Choristers. The mind that would have inspired the 
 Council Board with plans of active benevolence ranging 
 over the whole Diocese, and from it over the whole field of 
 the Gentile world, could find no place and feel no interest 
 in mere administrative details. His heart also was with 
 the Parochial Ministry, but without the power, for want of 
 a central organ, really and permanently to influence it for 
 good. There were fervent prayers and holy blessings at 
 the Ember seasons and at the cycles of Confirmation : there 
 were vivid impulses given to every charitable work by 
 sermons and addresses : there was genial hospitality, and 
 intense energy of business : but one thing was lacking, 
 which the Cathedral, fully organized, would have supplied, 
 the daily walk in the House of God with those upon whom 
 he would soon lay his hands : the line upon line, and precept 
 upon precept : the inward communings of heart with heart, 
 which would have stamped upon every neophyte the inde- 
 lible impress of parental love, and made him to the end of 
 his life, the Bishop's own son in the ministry of Christ. 
 
 The lack of that daily work seemed to be little, and yet 
 it was everything. And so the world thought : and even
 
 11 
 
 questioned the use of existiug Bishoprics instead of wishing 
 for more, and, but for God's providence, would have deso- 
 lated some of our most time-honoured Cathedrals, and made 
 some of our most reverend brethren the last of their line. 
 
 Thus it was, that the comprehensive spirit of the old 
 founders of our Universities and our Cathedrals was lost : 
 and is now seen only, as the faint outline of the ground plan 
 of an old Cathedral may sometimes be seen, traced in the 
 hoar-frost or the dew upon the smooth green turf which now 
 lies above it. Hoar-frost, and dew, and sunshine fall upon 
 it in their turn : as coldness, and blessing, and zeal alter- 
 nate in the Church : all alike in kindness or in censure 
 trace out the one great ground plot of the Christian Church, 
 which we must always build upon, though we shall not 
 live to see its completion : but we shall see it in another 
 world, a glorious Church, a house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens. 
 
 Among the bitter memories of the past, the sight of 
 ruined Churches, and desolate Cloisters, and failing Insti- 
 tutions, you are brought back to the point in England from 
 which we start in the Colonies, to be men of hope, planters 
 of a new oak to replace the old : convinced of this that the 
 work may change its character, and its local habitation, 
 but that it can never perish, because the spirit of the living 
 God is in it. 
 
 Here then we meet with one heart and one soul. Men of 
 memory and men of hope : successors of long lines of holy 
 prelates, running up into the infancy of the British Church : 
 guardians of our venerable Cathedrals : tutors of our an- 
 cient Colleges : Parish Priests trained to holy reflection 
 under the shadow cast by the ivy-mantled tower upon the 
 graves where the old forefathers of the hamlets sleep : Co- 
 lonial men of hope, aye, and of good hope too ;* who will 
 take the rude navigator's pious name, as the watchword of 
 
 * The Bishop of Natal and Sir George Grey, K.C.B., newly ap- 
 pointed to the government of the Cape of Good Hope.
 
 12 
 
 their own Christian enterprize : and young men, full of zeal 
 and spirit, growing up in our schools of learning : and 
 learning only to win a crown, which they may cast down 
 straightway at the feet of Christ. There are those here, 
 who have seen man relapsing into barbarism, by the abuse 
 of the very means, by which they were first civilized, and 
 yet have not been appalled by the greatness of the work 
 or the multitude of the ungodly : but have laid down their 
 broad ground plan of forty or fifty churches in the midst of 
 dense masses of an almost heathen population, and have 
 lived to see them completed. And some of us have laid 
 the foundations of our spiritual house upon the wild waste 
 of the lonely hill and plain : and have lived to see the hill 
 crowned with the village spire, and the hill side peopled 
 with the worshippers of God. And there are some present 
 here, of a different class : mothers of hope, who have prayed 
 like Hannah, for a holy child : and when he was bjrn have 
 dedicated him to God in baptism : and are now watching 
 the first spark of the fire of the Holy Spirit, and gently 
 breathing it into a flame. This day is the witness of God's 
 blessing upon their holy aspirations. Cuddesdon opens her 
 arms to those children of prayer : as the genial mother who 
 will gather them in her bosom : and present them hereafter 
 before this altar in the white robe of ministerial holiness, 
 which is the type of the purity of the saints in light. 
 
 On this day, my dear brothers, all of us meet as men of 
 hope, to inaugurate with prayer and blessing your new 
 College with its single scholar — " The little one shall be- 
 come a thousand." 
 
 Who can comprehend, even in thought, the future of 
 such a foundation as this ? If it were a school of human 
 learning, we should know the bounds beyond which it could 
 not expand — it would then be like the pouring of water, 
 when we know both the quantity of the supply, and the 
 capacity of the reservoir. But who can tell the future de- 
 velopment of this one spark of fire ? A word of living 
 power spoken here may kindle a flame which will burn even
 
 13 
 
 to New Zealand. From this altar live coals may be borne 
 to kindle our old Cathedrals ; and to quicken the zeal of 
 our Parochial ministrj' : and thence to spread the light and 
 life of the gospel to the most distant colony, and to the 
 utmost bounds of the gentile world. It is a seed sown in 
 singleness of heart : it is the least of all seeds, but it will 
 grow into a great tree : it is a little one, — but it will be- 
 come a thousand. 
 
 " The Lord will hasten it in His time."
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 OPENING OF THE 
 
 THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION, 
 CUDDESDON. 
 
 (Frotn the Oxford Herald.) 
 
 Our readers will remember the account we gave more than a 
 year ago of the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of this 
 Institution ; those who were present will not have forgotten the 
 Bishop's effective and heart-stirring address, and how he turned 
 the pelting of the storm into an omen of future success for the 
 Institution, from the Psalmist's assurance that " they that sow in 
 tears shall reap in joy." The solemn choral service and goodly 
 procession of surpliced clergy created an impression not readily to 
 be effaced. Thursday witnessed the formal inauguration of the 
 College. 
 
 Before speaking of the service we will briefly describe the 
 building, one of Mr. Street's most successful efforts. It is built 
 with a view to future enlargement, a range of students' rooms 
 ending in the Vice-Principal's apartments, forming a right angle 
 with the Chapel and Hall. The entrance is through a spacious 
 doorway into the cloister, from whence a staircase ascends to the 
 Chapel over the Hall. The Chapel is fitted with stalls against 
 the west wall for the Bishop and officers of the College, and seats 
 looking north and south for the students . The altar is properly 
 vested and adorned. A very beautiful dossal, painted by a 
 member of the University, covers the space behind. It consists 
 of three compartments, the centre charged with a floriated cross 
 of most chaste design. Externally the building is very effective, 
 from the bold pitch of the chapel roof, its pretty bell turret, and 
 the number of picturesque dormer gables. The windows of the 
 cloister are very beautiful. The total cost of the building was 
 £4000. Mr. Myers was the builder. 
 
 It was rightly determined that the inauguration of the College 
 should be accompanied with an impressive and dignified ceremo- 
 nial. Under the precentorship of the Rev. J. L. Fish, M.A., a
 
 15 
 
 very large choir was assembled. It was composed of selections 
 from S. John's (parish), S. Thomas, Holywell, &c. &c., forty 
 students of the Culham Training College, and several members, 
 clerical and lay, of the University. Amongst the latter we noticed 
 the Rev. G. W. Huntingford, Rev. T. Hutchinson, Rev. H. Sar- 
 gent, Fellow of Merton College, Rev. D. Macray, New College, 
 Rev. R. Thornton, S. John's College, Rev. R. Hake, New Col- 
 lege, Rev. C. J. Le Geyt, Magdalen College, Rev. P. Medd, 
 Fellow of University College, Rev. T. Russell, and Rev. J. G. 
 Wood, S. Thomas's, Hon. F. Lygon, Fellow of All Souls College, 
 S. H. Lear, Fellow of All Souls College, D. Duncombe, Brase- 
 nose College, R. Curzon, Brasenose College, Hon. W. Byron, 
 All Souls College, B. Chope, Exeter College, J. Oakley, Brase- 
 nose College, &c., to the number of a hundred. The Rev. T. 
 Helmore came from London and gave his valuable assistance. 
 
 The following Bishops were present, all of whom took part in 
 the proceedings : — Bishops of London, Bangor, S. David's, Wor- 
 cester, Chichester, Natal, and New Zealand. There were also 
 present Archdeacons Clerke and Bickersteth, and about two hun- 
 dred and fifty of the parochial Clergy of the Diocese. 
 
 At eleven o'clock a rehearsal of the Choral Service took place at 
 the College. From this time till the service began, clergy and 
 laity poured in in great numbers, and occupied the time in listen- 
 ing to the practice. Many, even ladies, walked from Oxford, in 
 order to devote in alms what they must have otherwise spent on 
 their conveyance. 
 
 A little after one o'clock the Choir was assembled and conducted 
 to the Church, where the transepts had been reserved for its use, 
 the chancel being kept exclusively for the Bishops and dignitaries. 
 The greater part of the nave was filled with clergy, and the re- 
 maining seats with laity. All the passages, porches, and door- 
 ways, however, were still crowded with worshippers unable to 
 obtain seats. The whole number of Clergy and Choir was about 
 three hundred and sixty, all properly habited in surplices. Shortly 
 after, a procession from the palace entered the Church, consisting 
 of the Rural Deans, Bishops, Chaplains, &c. The Litany was 
 then sung by the Rev. G. W. Huntingford, Vicar of Littlemore, 
 and the Rev. C. J. Le Geyt, Chaplain of Magdalen College, 
 kneeling at the chancel steps. The Choir sang their part admi-
 
 16 
 
 rably, and the effect produced by such a large body of voices 
 must have astonished persons accustomed only to choirs of ordi- 
 nary power and numbers. After the Litany the Bishop of New 
 Zealand commenced the Sermon. At this time one part of the 
 Church afforded a singular scene. All the seats had been cleared 
 out, and the Choir had knelt during the Litany in the clear space 
 of the transepts, which were completely filled by them. During 
 the sermon they found such seats as they could. An old stone 
 bench runs round two sides, this the clerical members of the Choir 
 occupied, whilst the lay clerks and choristers sat before them on 
 the floor. It was indeed a most picturesque sight, and in some 
 respects must have reminded the apostolic Bishop of the simple 
 congregations in his remote diocese. 
 
 After the Sermon the alms were collected by Clergy whilst the 
 Choir chanted Psalms 149 and 150 from the " Psalter Noted." 
 In consequence of the large congregation, it was found necessary 
 to repeat these Psalms. After the alms had been laid on the altar 
 the Laity left the Church. The Precentor and his assistants then 
 arranged the procession in the Churchyard, in the following 
 order : — 
 
 Wandbearers. 
 
 Verger. 
 
 Choristers. Choristers. 
 
 (two and two.) (two and two.) 
 
 Lay Clerks. -,,, ,, Lay Clerks. 
 
 Wandbearer. 
 (two and two.) (two and two.) 
 
 Clergy PRECENTOR. Clergy 
 
 of the Choir. of the Choir. 
 
 Wandbearers. 
 
 CLERGY. 
 
 Wandbearers. 
 
 RURAL DEANS. 
 
 BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND. BISHOP OF NATAL. 
 
 BISHOP OF WORCESTER. BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S. 
 
 BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. BISHOP OF BANGOR. 
 
 BISHOP OF LONDON. 
 
 Verger. 
 
 BISHOP OF OXFORD. 
 
 Chaplains.
 
 17 
 
 In this order the procession moved slowly through the village 
 chanting the 84th Psalm, which was repeated on approaching the 
 College. It was originally intended that the 68th should have 
 been sung, but the arrangements were afterwards somewhat 
 altered. So great was the length of the procession that when the 
 whole Choir was in the village the long approach to the west door 
 of the Church was still occupied by the Clergy, whilst the Bishops 
 had not yet left the Church. On reaching the ground in front of 
 the building, the Clergy and Choirs formed on either side, whilst 
 the Bishops took up their stand close to the entrance door. The 
 first part of the service consisting of versicles, the Lord's Prayer, 
 and three Collects, was then intoned. The Bishops and Rural 
 Deans then proceeded to the Chapel of the College, where Psalm 
 127 and some Collects were said. Of course it was quite impos- 
 sible for the whole body of Clergy to join in this act, whilst, there- 
 fore, the Bishops and Rural Deans were in the College, the Veni 
 Creator was sung to its proper ancient melody by those without. 
 This was followed by Psalms 87, and 24, to the 6th and 7th tones. 
 At the close of the last Psalm the Bishops returned from the 
 College, and severally addressed the assembled concourse. 
 
 The Bishop of Oxford said — My rev. brethren and my brethren 
 of the laity, before we unite together in the concluding praises and 
 prayers of this service, let me say a few words to you, as to the pui- 
 pose of that which we may look for God's blessing upon, when we 
 open it for use. You know that we are intending with the help of 
 God to provide here a retreat to be devoted to study, prayer, and 
 training for those who are about to be ordained into the ministry 
 of Christ's Church. Now, I think, it would at once present itself 
 to the mind of eveiy one, unless he had experience to the contrary, 
 that to have such an Institution, and to have it close to the residence 
 of the Bishop of the Diocese, whore day l)y day, please God, he might 
 see and pray with and heliJ those who were shortly to come under 
 his hand for ordination, must be a natural and a most happy arrange- 
 ment. And we know that in the earlier times of the Church this was 
 the arrangement, that the Bishop should have round his own residence, 
 where he might continually watch over them, those whom he in the 
 discharge of his sacred functions, would, if he found them meet, send 
 forth to the great and awful work of ministering to the souls for 
 which Clirist died. Yea, rtiy brethren, and not only in earlier times 
 was this so, but when it pleased God to grant to our nation that deli- 
 verance from the corruption and superstitution which to such a great
 
 18 
 
 degree had overlaid His truth, they whom He then raised up to purge 
 the religion of this country, contemplated this as one great part of 
 the reformation, that in conjunction with the Bishop's house there 
 should be a place for the reception of those about to be appointed 
 to the ministry of the Church. Exactly accordant with right reason, 
 with primitive antiquity, and with the desires of the great leaders of 
 the Reformation is that which we are now doing this day ; and there- 
 fore, brethren, assembled here we may be regarded, as we have been 
 told by my right reverend brother, both as men of memory and men of 
 hope, in sowing this little seed in the belief that God may cause it to 
 germinate and grow up, until its branches overshadow, it may be, 
 thousands of souls. I do heartily thank Him for the sight with which 
 He has gladdened my eyes this day, that I see gathered around me 
 from every part of this diocese, its faithful laity coming here to help 
 us by their prayers and testify their sense of the endeavours thus 
 made to supply one of the needs of ^our common Church. I rejoice 
 unfeignedly to see those whom God has given to labour with me in 
 holy things in this diocese, to see my brethren of the clergy gather- 
 ing around me again to day, as I have seen them, thank God ! upon 
 so many occasions since I was first placed in this diocese, affording me 
 all that man can afford of a sense of strength. I rejoice too, in 
 finding the laity, the presbyters and deacons of the Church, uniting 
 in prayer, uniting in harmonious praise, and I would trust in earnest 
 supplication to our common Lord, and Father, and Redeemer, in be- 
 half of the one object which we have before us. Further, I rejoice 
 abundantly to see that we have amongst us to day so many repre- 
 sentatives of that ancient University to which we are bound by such 
 ties of love and of gratitude. Many of the heads and leaders of the 
 chief colleges in that great University are here, and we should have 
 had the presence of others, and also of him who now presides over 
 that seat of learning, had it been possible, so that he might have 
 given the negative at once and for ever to any narrow-minded persons 
 who should assert that there must be opposition between such two of 
 the Church's works as that mighty University and this Institution for 
 giving to the clergy an opportunity of study and prayer, and the 
 benefit of seclusion and quiet before being sent out to the work to 
 which they are devoted. Those most interested in the welfare of the 
 University regard this work with no narrow prejudice, but rather look 
 at it as calculated to aid in the course of God's providence, the great 
 work of evangalizing the world through the medium of christianizing 
 education. And I rejoice, my reverend brethren, and my brethren of 
 the laity, on your behalf, in the appearance of those right reverend 
 fathers of the Church of England, whom I see beside me. Our thanks
 
 19 
 
 are due to tliem in that they have come among us on this day, that 
 they have aided us with their suggestions, and given us the blessing 
 of their prayers and of their thanksgivings. A fair and goodly sight 
 indeed has God vouchsafed to us this day. From its earliest dawn, 
 when in the chapel of my house we knelt together, eight of the bishops 
 of the English Church, partaking of the Holy Communion, throughout 
 the service in which we have been engaged, in which my right reverend 
 brother who rules over the metropolitan see of this land, has found 
 time amongst his overwhelming occupations to come down and bear 
 part, in which another right reverend brother whom God has spared 
 ten years beyond the time appointed to the life of men, has also borne 
 part, giving us his patriarchal blessing ; and in which my other right 
 reverend brethren of various dioceses have also assisted — indeed, in all 
 that has hitherto marked it this day has been one of comfort and 
 satisfaction. And when, in addition to what I have named, we have 
 the pleasure of knowing that we should, but for insuperable hin- 
 drances, have had five more of that right reverend body with us this 
 day, and when we remember that the providence of God has suffered 
 us here in Oxford in this ancient diocese to welcome home to day a 
 right reverend brother who for twelve years has been spending his 
 strength in labours closely allied in their object and pui'pose with 
 those in which we are engaged, in endeavouring in a far country to 
 give effect to the teachings and discipline of our Church, the solemn 
 interest of the occasion is increased. It is indeed, right reverend 
 fathers, to my diocese, and to myself, matter of deep thankfulness to 
 God and of my hearty acknowledgments to you, that you have come 
 here to day to imprint by more than words upon those who have en- 
 tered upon this work, that what we are doing here is for the Church 
 of our fathers ; for no section of it, for nothing narrower than that 
 true Church of England as God in His providence has planted it in 
 this land, to help us to send forth to the work of the ministry men 
 trained to unceasing activity, men trained to becoming habits, and 
 taught what it is to give their days to prayer and meditation, men 
 fitted by practical knowledge derived from administration in neigh- 
 bouring parishes to act with usefulness in their own, men, if God 
 should so will it, not only earnest and desirous to do His work, but 
 knowing something of the work they are going to do. On the part 
 of my diocese I again thank you, my right reverend brethren, for the 
 gladdening of heart and strengthening of hands which we owe to your 
 sympathy in our cause. And I would say to you, and to my brethren 
 of the laity, remember this place in your several prayers, remember 
 that to day is but the sowing of a seed, and not the reaping of a har- 
 vest. Think of us whenever you are supplicating most earnestly 
 
 B 2
 
 20 
 
 before the throne of grace, and pray that the dew of God's spirit ma 
 fall upon this place, that wc may be kept fi'om all evil, from indiffer- 
 ence or self-reliance, from narrowness of mind or superstition, from 
 anything which can influence that pure outline of Catholic truth to 
 which the Church of England clings, and which, thank God, I be- 
 lieve she vvill still continue to cherish and defend. Pray to God for 
 us that His word may be our guide. His strength our guard. Pray to 
 Him that we may be enabled to send out from these walls men 
 humble, thoughtful, '^careful, patient, and simple lovers of Christ's 
 truth, lovers of men's souls, men whose lives may accord with the 
 goodly pattern of old Church of England piety. And the Lord our 
 God will hearken to your prayers, and as has been said to us this day, 
 I trust, in the voice of prophecy, in ways we know not of, and by an 
 expansion of which we venture not now to dream. He will make this 
 our little one become a thousand. 
 
 The Bishop of London next came forward and said, — My brethren 
 of the clergy and laity of this diocese here assembled, I know it is 
 from the situation which I occupy in the Church of this country, that 
 I have been called on by my right rev. friend the Bishop of this 
 diocese to address to you a few words, and the first I shall use will 
 be in order to express to you on my own behalf and on that of my 
 right rev. brethren our thankfulness to him and to you for having 
 afforded us this opportunity of witnessing a spectacle which has given 
 to all, I am quite sure, as it has to me, the deepest gratification ; for 
 not only do I see a number of my fellow labourers in the Lord's vine- 
 yard assembled together, with a large concourse of lay members of the 
 Church, which alone, considering the object which has brought them 
 hither — the desire to manifest the deep respect they feel for their 
 admirable diocesan — would have been a source of the utmost satisfac- 
 tion to me, but moreover it teaches us the results of such an adminis- 
 tration of the affairs of a diocese as that which my right rev. friend 
 has been privileged to carry on ; it teaches what the results will be, 
 what the effects will be, upon the clergy and laity of a diocese when 
 they see their spiritual leader indefatigable in carrying forward every 
 work of piety and charity in the district given to his care. In the 
 comprehensive scope of your diocesan's view the most distant effects 
 of these schemes of benevolence or piety, which at first sight, per- 
 haps, appear trifling and insignificant, are taken account of, and in the 
 end are made to branch out and conduce to the highest interests of the 
 Church. An instance of this is afforded in the undertaking which has 
 occasioned our meeting to-day, — the opening of a College for training 
 candidates for the ministry. You have heard the simple and unpre- 
 tending description of the intended operations of this institution from
 
 21 
 
 your Diocesan, and it would be something worse than superfluous 
 were I to go over the same ground again, I will, therefore, conhne 
 myself to noticing one objection which has been made to these Col- 
 legiate institutions, and that is, that they will interfere with the teach- 
 ing of the University. I should be extremely unwilling to sanction 
 any undertaking which would have that effect. I look upon the 
 teaching of the University as a preparatory teaching of the utmost 
 importance to those who are about to be trained up for the ministry 
 of the Church, and I should be sorry indeed to see that dispensed 
 with. The necessities of the Church have made it essential that we 
 should from time to time admit into the ministry those who have not 
 gone through the regular training of a Collegiate education ; but that 
 is the exception not the rule, and our earnest prayer is that every 
 candidate should go through a course of academic training in one of 
 the Universities before he is received into Holy Orders. But how can 
 this Institution be said to interfere with the course of academical 
 teaching ? Rather, I should say, it completes, it concentrates, so to 
 speak, and brings into one focus that diffusive and more elementary 
 teaching which the University affords. When students have attended 
 the lectures of different learned professors and gathered here and there 
 the most important points of theology, they will here be taught to 
 bring them to one point, and to give them a practical application. 
 We may therefore regard these Colleges as the complement of acade- 
 mical training for new candidates for the ministry. It was the inten- 
 tion from the first that it should be so. With no want of respect 
 or regard for the academical institutions of the country, this Institu- 
 tion will eflfect one of the great objects which the ancient Church had 
 in view. Only think for a moment what an inestimable advantage 
 it is to the Bishop and those on whom he is about to lay his hands, 
 that they should be brought up for a certain period of time under his 
 own immediate inspection, and, as it were, almost under his personal 
 training. At present the Bishop is obliged to depend almost entirely 
 upon the testimonials of others of whom he knows little, for at least 
 all that concerns the moral and spiritual qualifications of the candi- 
 dates who present themselves to him for ordination ; but by the assist- 
 ance of these Institutions, the Bishop of the diocese will have ample 
 opportunities of learning from themselves, and by personal inter- 
 course, what are the characters and leading features of the minds of 
 the candidates, and how far he can, with a safe conscience, admit 
 them to the all-important work of the ministry. I see before me a 
 right reverend brother (the Bishop of Chichester), who I have no 
 doubt has experienced the value of an Institution similar in its 
 nature, though slightly diflfering in matters of detail, in the City of
 
 22 
 
 Chichester, and I myself have seen great reason to bear my testimony 
 to the worth of training Institutions of this kind, in the case of those 
 who have come under my hands for ordination after having passed 
 tlirough the College at Wells ; but I believe it could not be said of 
 the Institutions of Chichester, or at Wells, that they were based on so 
 secure a foundation for the attainment of the objects held in view, 
 or were Irstitutions so complete as will be the case with the Training 
 College at Cuddesdon. I think, therefore, that the Church at large 
 is greatly indebted to your right rev. diocesan for taking this im- 
 portant step towards supplying an acknowledged defect in the pro- 
 visions of the Church, a defect which has existed since the era of 
 the Reformation, for it was one most important object contemplated 
 by our great Reformers that they should make the Cathedrals Theolo- 
 gical Training Societies, or that there should be separate establishments 
 for the purpose. I will not say to whom it is to be attributed that 
 that scheme was never eflFectually carried out. I will not pretend to 
 determine that point, but the fact is undeniable that the intention 
 was suffered to fall into neglect. Imperfect steps have been at 
 times taken to supply the defect, but I think we have taken to-day 
 the first perfect step, — so far as one s(cp may be called perfect, — 
 towards the attainment of the desired object. We owe this to the 
 zeal and diligence of my right rev. brother of this diocese, and 
 therefore I am sure I speak the feelings of my other brethren the 
 bishops of other dioceses, when I return our most cordial thanks to 
 our right rev. brother for setting us this example ; and on you, dear 
 brethren of the laity, I would enforce in very few words, your duty 
 to value this rising Institution as a means of inestimable advantage 
 to yourselves, for who can estimate the blessings which will result 
 to the community at large, social, domestic, and political, from 
 the training up to the ministry of the Church men who shall be 
 thoroughly imbued with those principles which alone can ensure 
 obedience to the laws, loyalty to our Queen, attachment to all the 
 Institutions of our country, and the practice of all those Christian 
 virtues upon which the right government and the happiness of nations 
 depends ? From this place will go forth, under God's blessing, many 
 holy, well-educated, and hii,'h principled men, men well acquainted 
 with the principles of our true branch of Christ's Catholic Church, 
 accustomed to her holy discipline, and determined to carry out with 
 faithfulness of heart those views and those rules of action by which 
 the Church in this country seeks to ratify in the minds of all her 
 members those claims on their affections and their allegiance, which 
 nevertheless she bases upon far higher grounds. Unquestionably this 
 Institution with others, which I hope will follow in its train, will
 
 23 
 
 form important instruments in the hands of the Church for working 
 out her high and holy mission, I have to request your pardon for 
 trespassing so long upon your time, but I so deeply feel the gratifi- 
 cation which this visit has afforded me, and I feel so far more deeply 
 the prospective benefits which this Institution will confer upon the 
 Church, and through the Church at home upon the Church in the 
 colonies, and through the Church at home and in the colonies com- 
 bined, upon the world at large, by extending the boundaries of 
 Christ's Church into the dominions of heathendom, which are 
 not limited to foreign lands or the wild unreclaimed wastes of the 
 earth, but which exist even in this highly privileged country, where 
 faithful ministers have to contend with the powers of Satan, that I 
 could not resist the temptation of giving expression to my feelings. 
 Let me repeat that it is against the heathendom at home as well as 
 abroad that we have to contend. Satan has strongholds of igno- 
 rance and superstition amongst us, and these must be attacked ; but I 
 doubt not that by the aid of God thode who go forth from this College 
 will be able to triumph over those foes, will be able to fight the good 
 fight of faith, and by the aid of God's spirit to retire victorious from 
 the contest. Let it at all events be the object of our earnest prayers, 
 that the blessing of God may rest upon this Institution, that His holy 
 Spirit may pour down its Divine influence upon those who are to be 
 trained therein, that it may become a rock and citadel of Gospel 
 truth, and a stronghold from which may be carried out the Church's 
 purposes in all their fulness and completion. 
 
 The Bishop of Chichester next ascended the platform. He said, 
 — Being the only Bishop here present who has had the advantage of 
 some experience in regard to an institution somewhat similar to the 
 one which has this day been inaugurated and with prayer devoted 
 to the service of Almighty God, I have been alluded to in that capacity 
 by my right rev. brother who has just addressed us, and your dio- 
 cesan has added to that kind notice of the Training Institution at 
 Chichester, a request that I would, did I feel my self justified in so 
 doing, confirm the statement made by the Lord Bishop of London 
 as to the advantages resulting from such an institution. Most readily 
 do I comply, and I can assure you that in addition to the advantage 
 which I fully believe results from the mere interposition of a period 
 between the termination of academical study and the being advanced 
 to an academical degree, between the time when the young Bachelor 
 of Arts quits his University, and that at which he presents himself 
 before the Bishop for ordination, 1 believe, I say, that in addition to 
 the advantage resulting from the mere interposition of a period for 
 serious meditation, for considering more sedately than when under
 
 24 
 
 the excitement of a desire to distinguish himself in the studies of his 
 University, — and such an interposition of time is advantageous to the 
 candidate for ordination, and to the Bishop before whom he comes, — 
 but besides that, when we consider that during that period he is not 
 to be left to himself merely to reflect alone and unaided upon the 
 solemn and awful work before him ; but that he is to have the advan- 
 tage of regular training in the duties of the sacred office for which he 
 is about to present himself, you may, without the benefit of experience, 
 easily suppose that it must be a great benefit to him and to the Church 
 of which he is about to become by the blessing of God a Minister. 
 But I desire briefly to add this, that I have found it to be so in practice 
 and experience. Having thus discharged the duty which was im- 
 posed upon me by the request of your Diocesan, I only beg to say 
 further, that I pray that this Institution, foimded upon a larger scale 
 than my own, may be found also, as I have no doubt it will be found 
 to be in this Diocese, a great blessing; a great advantage to aspirants 
 for ordination, a great benefit to the parishes in which those who shall 
 be ordained may be called to labour, and of great service in strength- 
 ening the hands of your Bishop. 
 
 The Bishop of Bangor was next invited to address the assembly. The 
 
 venerable prelate advanced and with touching simplicity spoke thus : — 
 
 I have to thank your diocesan both for the pleasure which he has 
 
 afforded me in requesting my presence here this day, and for the kind 
 
 manner in which he has alluded to my old age. I am sure I have 
 
 many reasons to be thankful to a good Providence for the degree of 
 
 excellent health which has been granted to me in my advanced years, 
 
 and it will be an additional source of thankfulness that I have been 
 
 able to be present at such a solemn and impressive scene as I never 
 
 before witnessed and probably never shall again, but which while I do 
 
 live will leave a strong and lasting impression on my mind. I cannot 
 
 sufficiently congratulate this diocese in particular upon the great 
 
 benefit likely to result to it, from the continual activity of my excellent 
 
 and right rev. brothei", who is one of the great stays and hopes of 
 
 the Church, and jiarticularly from this Institution which he has been 
 
 instrumental in establishing. Having been myself for many years a 
 
 bishop, and knowing with how little preparation young men present 
 
 themselves as candidates for ordination, I can say with confidence that 
 
 were such institutions more general among us, they would be of very 
 
 great benefit indeed to the cause of the Church, by giving a better 
 
 education, and a clearer knowledge of theology to those young persons 
 
 who become candidates for ordination. I am sure you all feel deeply 
 
 indebted to your right rev. diocesan for the zeal and earnestness with 
 
 which he has exerted himself to bring the rearing of this excellent
 
 25 
 
 Institution to a conclusion, and I trust that the blessing of God in 
 answer to our prayers, will descend upon it, and that it may be 
 permitted to contribute more and more to the advancement of this 
 good cause, and to the stability of the Church of England. As a very 
 old member of that Church, I see with gratitude the step thus taken. 
 1 thank you for the attention you have paid me, and humbly hope 
 that the blessing of Almighty God will descend upon all of you in 
 your several ranks and stations, and that if any attain to my years 
 they will enjoy the same degree of liealth, and be prepared for that 
 change which will await them as it awaits me. I return you my 
 thanks. 
 
 The Bishop of St. David's said, — I feel most deeply that nothing 
 which I can say will do anything but impair the effect of those 
 eloquent and touching appeals which you have heard from your 
 diocesan, and from others of my right rev. brethren, and from the 
 venerable prelate who last addressed you. I should not have ventured 
 to have appeared before you if I had not been requested by my right 
 rev. friend, your diocesan, by a very few words to mark my interest 
 in this occasion. I feel that that request, coming fiom him in this 
 place, and upon such an occasion, has all the weight of a command, 
 which it is impossible for me to disobey without suspicion of indif- 
 ference to the pleasure conferred upon me, in my being permitted to 
 witness a scene the recollection of which will be imprinted upon my 
 memory as it will, I believe, upon those of all present in indelible 
 characters. I regret most deeply the causes, whatever they may be, 
 which have prevented a greater number of our right rev. brethren 
 from sharing in the pleasure we have enjoyed. I feel it upon their 
 account, because they have lost a source of gratification such as I am 
 persuaded has hardly ever been afforded them, and I regret it still 
 more for our sakes because I am fully convinced that from whatever 
 diocese and from whatever quarter of the countrj' they might have 
 come, they would have been willing to have joined in an expression 
 of their full and hearty assent to all that we have heard in regard to 
 the importance and advantages of such institutions, and the prin- 
 ciples upon which this particular Institution will be carried out, and 
 would also have joined in our earnest wishes and hearty prayers and 
 praise for its prosperity and success. I have really nothing that is 
 worth your hearing to add to what has been so eloquently and so 
 truthfully stated upon this subject. If I might say one word in addi- 
 tion it would be this, — a remark has been made by my right reverend 
 brother the Bishop of London with regard to a supposed posi>ible 
 collision between the objects of this Institution and the academic 
 teaching of the University. I would observe upon this, that however
 
 26 
 
 I may assent to, and I suppose it is impossible for any of us to with- 
 hold our assent from, the statements that were made by my right 
 rev. friend, in reference to the Universities being originally designed 
 to fulfil the objects held in view by this Institution, I think it a 
 fortunate circumstixnce that the developement of that purpose did not 
 take place in the precise way in which it was originally designed to 
 have done, because I think it must be evident to every one who 
 knows the right nature of a University, that however excellent and 
 comprehensive, and perfect its theological provisions might be, it is 
 quite impossible that it could afford opportunities for that which is the 
 most important part of the training of the candidate for holy orders, 
 and which is afforded by this Institution. Your excellent diocesan 
 has pointed out to us that in addition to the acquirement of any specu- 
 lative knowledge and any domestic training, the residents in this 
 College will enjoy the inestimable advantage of becoming familiar with 
 the nature of their parochial work by actual practice. That is an ad- 
 vantage which [ believe it is utterly impossible for the University to 
 afford ; and even if that were possible, the University would still fail 
 of supplying those benefits which the inmates of this College will enjoy 
 by their very position, that quietude and seclusion, those opportunities 
 for meditation and for the formation of religious and ecclesiastical 
 habits, such as I believe can only be afforded by an institution 
 situated as this is. There is one other matter of importance in con- 
 nection with this subject. Some of us who are here present had pro- 
 bably an opportunity of listening yesterday to an address delivered 
 in the Tovm Hall at Oxford, by the right rev. preacher of this 
 morning, and they will remember how he insisted upon the absolute 
 necessity of strengthening the Church at home, if we wish to extend 
 its operations abroad ; that is to say that it would be something chi- 
 merical to hope permanently to lengthen its cords without strength- 
 ening its stakes ; and this Institution is, I believe, one of the ways 
 in which a permanent and ample provision can be made for extending 
 the Gospel of Christ among the strong-holds of heathenism abroad. 
 Once more looking at home, I may express a confident hope that 
 the benefits of this Institution will not be confined to the diocese in 
 which it has been planted. I am sure that the benefit will be extended 
 in the way of example, and in the way of encouragement, far beyond 
 any such local limits, and that it will be the centre and the focus of 
 the life of the Church, the welfare of the ministry, and, above all, 
 the blessings connected with the pure religion of Christ will be flowing 
 forth in one deep and constantly increasing stream. I can only add 
 the expression of my own deep personal gratitude in the first place 
 to Almighty God, to whom we owe such a spectacle as thia;
 
 27 
 
 in the next place to His faithful servant on whom He has conferred 
 the high privilege of becoming the instrument of such a great and 
 inestimable blessing. To you, my brethren, my thanks are due for 
 having had the patience to listen to these few and unimportant words, 
 in which I have attempted, most inadequately, to express my senti- 
 ments on this occasion. 
 
 The Bishop of Worcester said, — Sensible as I am that nothing 
 which I could say would add to the eflfect of the speeches of my right 
 rev. brethren that have preceded me, I should not have occupied 
 your time upon the present occasion if I did not feel that being the 
 only remaining prelate of the Established Church in this country who 
 has not addressed you, it might be thought that I was insensible of 
 the favour conferred upon me in being allowed to be present and bear 
 part in this ceremony, if I did not add my testimony to that of my 
 brethren as to the good effects which I feel assured will result from 
 this Institution. My rev. brethren, I am one of those who have 
 passed many years of my life in one of our Universities, and I am 
 therefore perhaps better able than many of you, to judge of the 
 effects which are likely to result from this Institution in the way of 
 supplying those deficiencies which the most zealous lovers of our Uni- 
 versities must admit to exist in them, and which difficulties have 
 perhaps been increased by the greater attention which has of late 
 years been bestowed upon the advancement of, and in promoting, studies 
 of a different nature in the University. For it is obvious that the more 
 the mind of the student is devoted to secular studies, the more neces- 
 sary it is that after he has attained his degree time should be allowed 
 for those theological studies which may have been to some extent 
 neglected. I have another reason for approving of this Institution. 
 In the course of the examination which it has been my duty to in- 
 stitute, when candidates have appeared before me for admission into 
 Deacons and Priest's Orders, invariably I have found those most pre- 
 pared who have passed a year after taking their degree at one of the 
 Theological Schools alluded to as existing at Wells and at Chichester. 
 And this is but natural, for it will be recollected that there is a strong 
 temptation to woxidliness when the student first quits the University, 
 where, perhaps, he has for three years bestowed unremitted attention 
 upon his studies and adhered strictly to certain rules of action. He 
 finds himself suddenly at full liberty for a year, before the discipline 
 of the Church will permit him to be admitted into Holy Orders, and 
 it is most important that just at this period means should be taken to 
 guard against his passing that year in pursuit of pleasure and frivolous 
 amusement, and to ensure its being bestowed in solemn preparation for 
 that awful profession into which he is about to enter. I will not 
 detain you with any further observations.
 
 28 
 
 The Bishop of Natal said, I have been persuaded to add a few 
 words to those ah'eady spoken, and yet what shall I say after the right 
 rev. fathers tliat have preceded me ? I have no experience to which I 
 can call your attention, no works accomplished or wants felt during 
 long years in the sacred office to which I have so recently been called. 
 This only I can tell you, that coming as I have lately done, from a 
 foreign land belonging to the Crown of England, in which there is not 
 yet a single church or chapel erected to the honour of God, and for the 
 worship of His creatures, I even now can feel the want of such an 
 institution as this, and 1 have met with experience in my short ten 
 weeks visit to my diocese which will compel me at oace on my return 
 to found such an Institution. I was visiting a native chief at Natal, 
 the chief of a powerful tribe, and after an interesting conversation 
 with him, I asked this mighty chief whether he would wish his chil- 
 dren to be taught the truths we were able to teach them ? His simple 
 reply was, " "We are the children, we wish to be taught,'' and the only 
 answer 1 could make was that when I had a young man who could 
 teach them, I would send him. From that moment I resolved in my 
 mind, with the blessing of Almighty God, and with the help and 
 charity of English Christians, to form an Institution like this for the 
 training of those who should go forth throughout the length and 
 breadth of that dark land to teach the glad tidings of the Gospel of 
 God. But when 1 speak of an Institution like this, I know that in all 
 outward things there must be an essential difference. Our institution 
 will not be built in this stately fashion, of stone ; but ■will be reared 
 with mud walls and covered with a reed thatch, and yet under such a 
 roof as that God's work may by the blessing of His Spirit be done. The 
 Bishop in conclusion expressed a hope that his little Institution might 
 with this more important undertaking be remembered in their prayers, 
 and that God's blessing would descend upon both. 
 
 The Bishop of New Zealand briefly bore testimony to the impor- 
 tance of this undertaking. In his Diocese it had been found necessary 
 to found an Institution with a like object, and it had been attended 
 with the most complete success. In twelve months twenty -six students 
 were admitted, thoroughly trained into the work of the ministry. 
 Against this little Institution it was never objected that it would in- 
 terfere with any English University ; it was 15,000 miles distant from 
 any, and those trained in it were not the children, but the grandchil- 
 dren of Englishmen. The Bishop concluded by giving one or two in- 
 teresting illustrations of the manner in which the work of the ministr}' 
 was carried on in his Diocese. 
 
 The Bishop of Oxford then said he was sure no one would refuse 
 to join with him in thanking the choir for their attendance. They
 
 29 
 
 had come together from the neighbouring University from the love of 
 praising God in those sw^eet sounds which he had enabled them to give 
 utterance to. And surely they could all join with one heart in giving 
 God thanks ; surely what they saw around them that day was a 
 blessed promise of His future favour. He would only remind them 
 under what different circumstances they were then met and the day 
 when they laid the first stone of the building ; how they slowly and 
 sadly wended their way in face of one of the coldest and sharpest 
 winds of a spring day, and the heaviest showers which the sky of Eng- 
 land knew how to pour down upon them. And thank God not one 
 man or one woman's heart failed on that day, although the storm did 
 its best to separate them ; but to-day the elements had ceased to buffet 
 them, and the sun, which might have been expected to pour down 
 upon them its burning rays, was graciously sheltered from them by 
 the clouds of heaven, and all nature seemed to testify to them that God 
 was with them, and to prove to them that they who went forth, as 
 they went out on that day, weeping, but bringing with them good seed, 
 shall shortly come forth with joy, bearing good fruit. 
 
 Te Deum was then chanted, and with wonderful effect, the light 
 and shade being so carefully observed as to make it plain that every 
 one in the immense choir, and, indeed, every one present, entered fully 
 into the meaning both of that sublime hymn and of the chant to which 
 it was simg. At its conclusion the Bishop i^ronounced the benediction, 
 whilst all the choir, and nearly all the clergy, with many of the laity, 
 knelt before him. 
 
 No one who was present could fail to be deeply moved with the 
 whole ceremony. The grandeur of the Litany and the rest of the 
 music, the hearty devotion of all who took part in the service, the im- 
 pressive sermon, and the eloquent addresses of the right rev. prelates, 
 must have struck every one. The touching address of the venerable 
 Bishop of Bangor in particular brought tears into many eyes, while 
 the sight of so many kneeling on the ground to receive their Bishop's 
 benediction was at once impressive and instructive. 
 
 The following are the rules for the government of the Institution : — 
 
 1. This Institution is now open to all Members of the Universities 
 of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham, who have passed their final ex- 
 amination, and to Students of King's College, who have passed tlie 
 two years course there ; or to Graduates of Trinity College, Dublin, 
 holding the Divinity Testimonium. 
 
 2. Students may be entered at Cuddesdon at Whitsuntide, Michael- 
 mas, or Christmas next. The Terms will be four in the year, com-
 
 30 
 
 menciog at Whitsuntide, Michaelmas, Christmas, and Easter respec- 
 tively. 
 
 3. The studies of the College will be under the immediate direction 
 of the Bishop of the Diocese, assisted by a Principal and Vice-Prin- 
 cipal. The reading will include the study of those books required to 
 be known by Candidates for Orders in the Diocese of Oxford, with 
 Buch additions as the period of residence permits — Elocution — the Ru- 
 diments of Pastoral Visitation, &c. Cuddesdon and some other neigh- 
 bouring Parishes will, under arrangements by the Bishop, afford oppor- 
 tunities for gaining insight into Parochial work, under the direction 
 of the Clergy. Endeavours will be made to procure Titles for Orders, 
 when such are needed : but the College is not limited to such as seek 
 Orders in the Diocese of Oxford. 
 
 4. The cost of a year's residence, including furnished rooms, will 
 not exceed £110. This will probably be hereafter reduced, as the 
 circumstances of the Institution allow. The charge will include all 
 expenses whatever within the College, except wine. For the present 
 Students may be admitted to reside for shorter periods than the year : 
 and, so long as there is accommodation in the Building, those who 
 are already in Deacon's Orders may be admitted for the purposes of 
 study. 
 
 5. Residence at Cuddesdon will be accepted by the Bishop of Oxford 
 as a substitute for attendance upon the Lectures of the Theological 
 Professors at Oxford, and for the passing of the Voluntary Examination 
 at Cambridge. 
 
 6. Any person wishing to enter his name for admission to the Insti- 
 tution, or to obtain any further infomiation upon the subject, may do 
 80 by letter to the Rev. the Vicar, Cuddesdon, Wheatley. 
 
 oxford: PRINTRD HV J. VINCENT.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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